Title: Judging innocence (5/8)
Author: Fabs G.
Summary: After an unpredictable twist of fate, Sirius finally gets a trial… and everyone is called to testify….
Rating: PG-13 (for some swearing)
Disclaimer: Everything is JK Rowling's! All I own here is the plot and Daily prophet reporter Methilda Shotclear, Matilde Pettigrew, Normal Lathren and Questioner Andrae
A/N: I swear I tried not to make it a Remus and Sirius slash. I did. I think I succeeded. It took a lot of swearing from my part, but I think I did. Enjoy. Review!
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Chapter 5: Going back
"We call to testify… Matilde Pettigrew"
The little witch stood up and went to the High Table. She walked very slowly, as if something was dragging her. Her face was washed in a sadness that was contagious. He never stopped to think about her, Harry realized. How the poor woman must have felt when she knew that her son had faked his death even to her.
Sirius and Remus looked at her and she gave them an almost imperceptible smile while she walked to the High table.
"My son's original wand" she said as she placed the long box in front of Fudge. Again, the cameras went utterly wild
"Thank you, Mrs. Pettigrew" He performed the wand-and-head spell on her and the Questioner started again.
"I will try to be as short as possible, Mrs. Pettigrew. Do you remember Mr. Black, back when your son and him were friends at Hogwarts?"
"I do. The very few times Peter brought him over, he always made me laugh and whenever he could, or had time, helped me with whatever he could. He always defended Peter, even when I scolded him because he had broken something or forgotten something."
"How did your son behave during the last years, before the Potter's death and his supposed death?"
Pettigrew's mum let out a sob, closed her eyes briefly and opened them again "Until about two years or so before James' death he was… normal. Since about the time James's son was born, he… whenever I asked him about his friends he would say that he didn't know. He always had an excuse not to talk about them. I thought they'd had a fight, and I asked him, but he denied it completely. When Harry was born, I wanted to meet the little boy, and I asked Peter if he could get me to their house or tell me where the house was, but he never wanted me to go. Once he even tried to forbid my meeting the boy or even talking to his friends. I didn't understand. When it I was told that Sirius had killed my son, I had a hard time believing it. But then I remembered Peter's attitude towards them and I thought it made sense. When I heard he was alive… that Sirius had been innocent all long… the doctors tried to prevent me to come and testify but I didn't want to deny him what little help I could give him"
"Do you think that Mr. Black could have become a Death Eater, or betray James Potter for that matter?"
"They had a beautiful group of friends." She said, with her eyes fixed on both Remus and Sirius, who were staring back at her. "All of them were strong, and all of them were brave, all of them loyal to each other." She lowered her eyes, avoiding their eyes "The only one of them who was vulnerable enough to change so drastically was my son."
The court made an hour-long recess for lunch, which everyone thankfully appreciated. Just as Sirius, Harry and Remus were about to join the Weasleys for lunch, a female voice called them
"Sirius! Remus!"
Remus and Sirius spun around like if someone had hit them with a whip. Matilde Pettigrew was making her way along the crowd, and Sirius walked forward to help her after a reporter nearly knocked her down.
"Hello, Matilde"
"Hello boys…" she looked at Harry. "My, you certainly do look just like your father. Those must be your famous mother's eyes. I'm sorry to say I never met her." She looked back at Sirius, and the sadness she had shown in court came back. "I hated you for thirteen years, for being a gentleman in my house and then taking away my son." She gently caressed Sirius' cheek with one of her wrinkled hands "I'm sorry. I didn't know I should have hated my own son"
"You don't have to be sorry. Your son made a mistake" she placed a hand on her own.
"You are being too good, Sirius. You know as well as I do that none of us, not even I, believe one word of that"
Sirius simply smiled at her, avoiding the subject "I'm glad you came. Thank you for wanting to testify for me"
"I hope I helped"
"You did" Harry had the funny feeling that Sirius was not talking about the trial.
She then turned and looked at Remus "Remus, if you ever need some, I am a very good potion-brewer. If you ever need someone to prepare the Wolfsbane for you, just owl me. It wouldn't hurt to make something useful of my time" she patted both their cheeks in a very motherly way and left them.
"I always thought of her as another mother to me, the way she behaved with us" said Sirius, watching as she went into the Dissaparating tent "She was always a very admirable woman…".
"Yes. Admirably noble, and strong. And with a marvelous sense of humor"
"It's a pity Peter didn't get any of that."
An hour later, the wizard traced his finger along the paper in front of him and spoke loud and clear "We call in to testify… Harry James Potter"
Harry felt his stomach shrink to the size of a walnut and, after squeezing Sirius' hand but not trusting himself to make eye contact, he stood up and went to sit in the chair besides the High Table.
The wizard did the same wand-and-head spell with Harry and, after seeing Harry did not intend to lie, the witch started questioning him
"Tell me about your relation with Sirius Black""He is my godfather, he was appointed my guardian by my parents… and he has helped me so much since I met him that it'd be fair to say he is also my friend" Harry saw Sirius smile at him.
"We understand the muggles you live with didn't know this. Who told you he's your godfather?"
"No one, actually. I overheard Professors McGonagall and Flitwick talk about him one day"
"Do they know about this?"
"No, they don't know I overheard"
"Why didn't you tell them? Or ask for more information about Mr. Black?"
Fearing the spell would make effect if he lied just to save his neck and not to save someone else, he decided to tell the whole truth "Because I overheard them when they were in The Three Broomsticks, in Hogsmeade, when I was supposed to be at Hogwarts, and I would get detention if they saw me"
The witch sniggered at him "I'm afraid you will after today" Both Remus and Sirius glared at her: they were too familiar with detentions to want one more in Harry's record.
"Tell me what happened on June 6th, 1994"
The question Harry had feared "Hermione, Ron and-"
"Complete names, please"
"Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley" he saw Ron grimacing at the mention of his full name "and I went to visit Hagr- Rubeus Hagrid at his hut, because his hippogriff was going to be executed. While we were there, Hermione found Ron's 12-year-old rat, Scabbers, who we thought had been eaten by her cat days before"
"You thought?"
"We found blood and hairs from Hermione's cat in Ron's bed, and we thought Crookshanks –that is, her cat- had eaten Scabbers."
The witch lifted an eyebrow "Faking his death again. How amusing. Continue, please"
"Ron grabbed Scabbers, who was struggling a lot to get lose of his grasp, and we went back to the castle. In the middle of the path, near the castle's doors Scabbers got lose and as Ron grabbed him, Sirius in his Animagi form appeared from behind and grabbed Scabbers, taking Ron with him"
"You said 'his Animagi form'?" the witch seemed bewildered about it
"Yes, Sirius..." he looked at Sirius apologetically for revealing a more than 20 year old secret "Sirius is an animagus, a dog. A really big dog. More like a grim"
The room burst into loud whispers and the cameras once again flashed at Sirius and Harry like crazy. The witch silenced the room with the help of the live gavel and faced the rest of the jury "Questioner Andrae requests permission to ask Sirius Ralph Black to prove his being an animagus"
No sooner had the jury nodded that Sirius changed into a dog and hopped onto the table, allowing everyone to see him.
He wagged his tail and with every swing he hit Remus' head with his tail. ("Oy! Stop it Sirius!") Sirius, although, seemed elated by everyone's reactions, and to spice up the situation a little more (and assure the Daily Prophet would get something funny enough to twist it as much as possible), he turned around and licked Remus' face repeatedly ("Gerroff!" he said in between fits of giggles)
This seemed to have astounded the jury greatly and Harry had the feeling the questioner was dying to question Sirius. After some speechless moments, Fudge told Sirius to transform back, which he did obediently and ended up sitting on the table, swinging his legs happily. Remus discreetly rubbed his temple with his fingers while the room burst into laughter. Again, the cameras flashed like crazy. The press was having a field day. Sirius jumped back and sat down again. He seemed to be in his element.
With much effort when taking her eyes of Sirius, the questioner told Harry to go on. Trying to swallow his laughter at Sirius' little show as better as he could, he told how they ended up in the Shrieking Shack, how he saw Ron's broken leg, how he and Hermione had thought it had all been a trap set up by Sirius. He told how Lupin appeared moments later asking about someone else in the room and, much to Harry's dismay at the moment, hugged Sirius tightly. He told how Lupin and Sirius had exposed Pettigrew, forcing 'Scabbers' to transform into his human form.
Harry finally finished the story and the witch, Andrae, questioned him again. "Did you help Sirius Black to escape?"
"No. He told me he escaped in his animagus form right before the dementors were brought in" His wand stood as quiet as before. Fortunately, the spell truly seemed to work only if you were lying to either save your neck or to incriminate an innocent.
"How do you stand concerning Sirius Black?"
"He is an innocent man who made a mistake and was framed by someone he thought was a friend. He did not deserve the 12 years in Azkaban and deserves to be let free"
Andrae dismissed Harry saying that he could be called later, but before he could stand up, Fudge asked him one last question that startled Harry greatly.
"Harry, suppose that, by some weird turn of destiny, today you find out that Sirius Black was indeed your parents' secret keeper, and therefore they died because of him. Would you punish him, after the year you've kept contact with him, after having him so close as to be a friend of yours?"
Harry thought hard for a very long moment "I don't know. It'd be something very hard for me." He looked at Sirius, who was frowning at him "I… I guess I... I don't know. He is a good man, he would've never betrayed my father."
Fudge let him sit again by Sirius, leaving Harry feeling that that honest answer had not helped Sirius at all.
Sirius leaned and whispered to his ear "We'll talk about that answer when we get back home"
And finally, as the last testimony of the day, it came Remus' turn. He was looking paler than usual, and his pace was slower than usual. Harry didn't know if this was because of the trial or the full moon. Sirius, however, was sure it was because of the full moon.
The first question was what had happened, from his point of view on June 6th 1994. Being the professor he was, Remus explained it so clearly the questioner didn't ask him again. The memories and the obvious link to the night Harry's parents had died seemed to be taking its toll on Remus, who looked extremely ill. Sirius was now in the edge of his chair, his eyes never leaving his friend
"You are friends with Mr. Black, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am"
"Have you always been friends?"
"No…" he wiped the sweat form his brow, although the room was quite cool. "We were friends from the very first day I met him at Hogwarts until the day James and Lily died and from the night of June 6th '94 onwards."
"Why do you say you were friends till "the day James and Lily died?"
"Well, because I thought he had helped in killing James and Lily, of course. His attitude in the previous days seemed to make sense with his supposed support to the dark side. I felt Sirius colder with me. Drifting apart. He was -is- my best friend and he was the kind of friend who was always teasing you, always happy, always with a joke to cheer you up a bit. The kind of friend that James was, always there for you if you needed him, and that week had been a full moon. They day before James and Lily died had been actually. He and James had kept track of the moon's phase ever since the day they knew I was a werewolf, if you asked them they could have told you the days that there were going to be a full moon all throughout the year. Sirius still can, as a matter of fact." He smiled his way "And that week they didn't even mention it. I understood about James, because he had a house, and a little son, but Sirius never showed up to be with me in his Animagus form as he had the previous 11 years. It was the first time since he became an Animagi that he wasn't there with me and I was weak from the transformation, so I just… let him be. I stayed at home and rested. When I knew about James and Lily's deaths the next day I thought, as everyone else had, that Sirius had betrayed them. And of course I didn't consider him a friend anymore." By this time Remus was deadly white and had started shivering slightly but he acted as if he didn't notice it.
"Well, that pretty much answers my question of what you did on 1981." The questioner looked at Remus, who had his eyes closed and had grasped tightly the side of his chair. Sirius was ready to jump at any moment. "Mr. Lupin are you alright?"
Everything happened so quickly, it was something weird to watch. Just as Remus answered he was fine, he fainted, and at the same time, Sirius explained he was weak from his transformation, asking for a recess until the next day and ran to grab Remus, preventing his slipping from the chair and straight to the floor.
Upstairs, Mr. Weasley with Ron and Hermione on his heels climbed down the stairs to get to the main courtroom, while Mrs. Weasley uselessly tried to prevent her children from going to check on their former professor.
Fudge granted the recess until the next day at 10 am and ordered the guards to 'kick the damn press out of the room'. The questioner called the Ministry's nurse and she appeared a second later, just after Sirius had settled the passed-out Remus back on the chair. She gave Remus a bottle of 'DeadUp' and revived him while the guards took the chance to take the AntiAps from Sirius' wrists.
When he finally woke up, he seemed lost as to how was it that there were so many people around him in court. Sirius told him he had asked for a recess until the next day and Remus looked up to see Mr. Weasley, Ron and Hermione gasping for breath as they arrived. "I'm fine, thank you" His voice was weird, almost angry.
The rest of the Weasley clan arrived, all of them worried about Remus.
Sirius kneeled down and looked at him intently. The color had returned to his face but he still looked bad. "I'm fine" repeated Remus.
"You're not, Remus" started again Sirius. Both looked at each other.
"Listen" Mr. Weasley obviously sensed the tension that was being born between the two men and looked at his wife "Molly can you take the kids and Hermione home?" she nodded "I think it's better if I apparate Harry and Sirius apparates Remus at his home"
A faint 'no' came from Remus' way but Sirius ignored it completely. "Yes, thank you Arthur"
They apparated a kilometer from Remus' house and, as soon as Mr. Weasley saw that everyone was safe, he left the Lupin house, saying he had to take Hermione to her own house.
Harry looked at Sirius and Remus. The tension between them was almost palpable. He excused himself ('I have the sudden desire to take a very long and very noisy bath') and ran upstairs. He was sure Remus was about to explode.
And once he saw that Harry was out of sight and earshot, he did.
"You interrupted my testimony!"
"You couldn't have gone on with it!"
"You made me look like a child that needed protection!"
"You fainted in the middle of the damn court Remus!"
"I. Can. Take. Very. Good. Care. Of. Myself. Thank. You. Very. Much." He said, trailing each word. It was their first fight in more than 15 years.
"I'm the one who knows that best! Do you really think I think of you as helpless or weak? I know better!"
"Then why did you make a fool of myself!"
"Well, I'm sorry if I worry about the only friend I have left!!" Sirius shouted. Realizing all that the statement implied and all the memories it brought back, he immediately covered his face with one of his hands.
"Sirius…" he walked to his friend, his voice had changed and was immensely calm and soothing.
"I didn't mean to say that. Or so loud." He seemed to let go something inside him and sighed. "The stress of the trial and having all those people dissect my life as you put it, and seeing Matilde again… and knowing Peter will probably declare tomorrow…" he looked at him. The awful tension that had been there a minute before had finally broken, and both of them now felt tired from the day.
"Sirius… it is no use avoiding saying what is true. Except for the trial, we've never mentioned James' name…" seeing Sirius avoided his gaze and didn't answer he tried to approach his friend through another way "Do you think people line up and take turns to be my friend? You are also the only friend I've got left." The conversation was getting to him "Bloody hell, Sirius, if it wasn't for you and Harry I'd have no one!"
Sirius looked at his friend's eyes "It hurts so much to even think about James. Or Lily."
"I know. But Sirius, in the end, it'll hurt even more not to talk about them. In the end you will feel awful because you never talked about them. We have to come to terms with their deaths. At least for Harry's sake. We can't go moping around the house every time we talk to him about his parents"
"It'd be quite a show"
"Sirius…"
"I know, I know. I'll try" he said earnestly.
Remus approached him "Sirius, I'm really sorry for the way I yelled. I… I have spent 12 years without a friend, without a marauder in my transformations. It's a very long time. I guess I forgot how it was to have someone that actually cared about me and not what I could do to them…"
Sirius hugged him tightly.
"Everything's going to be fine, Sirius. You deserve it."
He parted from his friend and Sirius looked at him. He had his trademark Marauder smile on his face "Do you want Padfoot with you tonight?"
Remus smiled back at him "That's a given. I have to warn you, though, it'll be boring. I'm not a savage beast anymore."
"Fantastic. You won't break my neck when wrestling"
"I said I'm not a beast anymore. I never said anything about my strength"
Upstairs, Harry let out a silent sigh and closed the door to his temporary room. He was glad the fight had developed into such an outpour of hidden feelings and in nothing mayor.
That night, after checking Harry was sleeping safe in his bed, Padfoot rode with Moony again.
After 13 years, it was the first time Moony liked the full moon.
~~~~~~~~~~ || TO BE CONTINUED || ~~~~~~~~~~
